The Babinski Mamas attended the “Apron with an Attitude” seminar to learn about Servanthood given by the Women’s Ministry of Greenhills Christian Fellowship East.

Just to share… and it’s not easy if you do it “alone”. 😦

“So He got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.” John 13:4-5

What is a genuine servant?

She persues love in every way – all the way. Even when we are sad, emotionally down, when things are not going smooth…

Because relationships are more important than goals and activities.

She prioritizes service over status. Towel instead of a Title? An Apron instead of an Approval? Others’ well-being instead of one’s comfort?

Because most of the time we want position, place and power in this world. To belong? To be accepted? Isn’t it that in our hearts we want praises?

She practices supernatural servanthood instead of self-serving leadership and lifestyle.

Because we have a supernatural God! Because we should be tireless servants of God, serving even when no one is looking, doing our best without requiring a “thank you”.

Let’s start with little things… Do you throw your trash in its proper place? Pick up that can that rolled on the floor in the grocery? Obey traffic signs? Visit the sick? The lonely? We’re guilty on some… 😦

Here are some happy pictures…

Baby Chloe is under the apron 🙂

Freshly-baked cookies by the Women's Team. Really good with coffee!

The Winners: Best Apron, Most Worn-out Apron, Most Colorful Apron and Most Unique Apron. Mama Charlene won the Most Colorful!

The Babinski Mamas went to Expo Kid with aching bodies due to belly dancing the night before. It’s like a hangover without the drinking… But who would know?

It’s only natural for us to daydream about different lives, different career paths, about being cowgirls in winged electric blue glasses, Lady Masquerades or Austin Powers’ toygirls… But the thing about fantasy? It tells an interesting story, but you still have to wake up…

We were happy to see our booth-neighbors Mompreneurs Denise of Indigo Baby and Grace of The Little Red Shoe! We’ve been together from bazaar to bazaar for quite a time now. Together with the other mompreneurs, all of us have one goal: Everything best for the children — because any other child is no different from ours — they all deserve the best.

Aimee, Charlene w/ Chloe, Denise w/ Benny, Mae, Grace

Overall, lipstick and coffee are still the best hangover cure… Got free lipstick from MAC Cosmetics, Powerplant, in a super cool day-shade…

…Because when you’re a home-maker, you just feel guilty to buy pretty cosmetics.

And for the Mamas, coffee frappe is no coffee frappe without cinammon roll topped with whipped cream and chocolate/cinammon/nutmeg powder…

From now on, Friday night is Belly Dancing night. Together with cousins and friends, October 1 was our baptism of fire!

We learned so much from our teacher, Ms. Bing, on our first belly dancing night. Actually, in normal clothes, we didn’t know that she was our teacher ‘til she changed into her costume. When she put on bright red and gold and started moving, her femininity and beauty exuded in a so much different way! When she started dancing to the music, I saw a different, beautiful and self-confident woman through and through. I want to be like that.

When we invited some mommies to join us, we got comments like, “No thanks, ang tigas ng katawan ko at lalabas ang mga bilbil ko jan…” or “Naku ang taba-taba ko!” or the “shy” mommies would say, “Um, no thanks it’s not my cup of tea.” So we ended up with just nine moms. Why we pushed belly dancing to mostly the moms and the timid, is more of to celebrate being a woman, because moms forget how special they are except on Mother’s Day, and they forget that they are still That Woman. It does not matter what shape you’re in. What counts is that you are in sync with yourself and accepting who you are, the whole package. It’s embracing yourself and loving your imperfections. Besides, beauty has nothing to do with being perfect but with your attitude, outlook and acceptance.

After the class we all felt so light and wished we knew about this years ago. You see, we’re not really fans of fast aero dances and the gym. We didn’t bring costumes yet but our teacher let us wear clanging coin and bells belt-scarves. Actually it’s the costumes that tend to the baroque that I love! …Silky, colorful outfits adorned with beads, bells, sequins and other bangles – ooooh sexeh.

We started out with the basic hip dances and I loved the Arabic music. Our teacher said that belly dancing has core-strengthening benefits. All the shoulder shimmying, hip-tilting and toe-tapping also help relieve arthritis & join pains, promote flexibility and drop pounds, the neck movement is for the thyroid, plus the breathing exercises give the lungs healthy benefits. We’re working muscles that we never use! Actually I think it has some similarities with yoga and pilates, except that with belly dance you dance with exotic, seductive music. I think it’s excellent for coordination, where I’m poor at, and the brain, too.

Honestly I am really a poor dancer and not really comfortable with my own body. It was hard for me to “open-up” too. But when I psyched-up, I felt at ease and comfortable. I think those who belly dance are naturally warm people. It’s more of like sisterhood. I love being around warm, loving people. The dance can make you come across as more self-confident and sensual, which what you (and your marriage) need. (Wives, think like a mistress who always tries to keep the magic alive! Believe me, belly dancing will make you into a sex-bomb and not sex-bum, sa isip, sa salita at sa gawa!)

Under our sweat pants and tank tops we clad ourselves in exotic, shiny and colorful scarves. We swooped, spun and writhed. I tried to follow the tightly choreographed display of movements. Aimee and the rest were a natural. Charlene had to belly dance with baby Chloe on one arm (haha). After each segment we gave ourselves applause and ululations. All the while I thought belly dancing was going to be just moving your hips, flowing around the room and shaking like Beyonce, but then upon seeing it my first reaction was, OMG this is harder than I thought it would be!

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Our body is amazing! It can make thousands of different movements, isolating many parts of the body besides the belly, in so many combinations. A hip-circle together with the head-slide, or a serpentine move together with the arm waves, the painful rib-cage circle with the snake arms. The dance routine was intricate, slow and then fast! Love the rhythm! It’s very natural and beautiful. The cacophony of movements up, down, left, right, spin up, spin down make my head spin literally, and it would be really hard for a photographer to grab a nice shot, it’s like shooting a flying butterfly. It involves lots of hand gestures, physical speed and coordination.

I am so into the mystique of the dance now, I just want to learn how to shimmy better, though.